Sam Bankman-Fried $500M Anthropic stake irrelevant to case, prosecutors say
United States prosecutors have requested the court presiding over Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial to bar his legal team from making any arguments relating to the potential recovery of FTX customer assets invested in Anthropic.
Bankman-Fried invested $500 million in the artificial intelligence startup in April 2022; however, the U.S. government is set to present evidence that the Anthropic investment was made using misappropriated funds from FTX customer deposits.
Anthropic made headlines in recent weeks as it looks to raise fresh funds from investors, courting the likes of Amazon and Google, which could lead to a $20–$30 billion valuation.
U.S. prosecutors note that recent reports focused on the potentially high valuation of the company would also increase the value of Bankman-Fried’s investment, which could aid the potential recovery of funds for FTX customers and other creditors in the FTX bankruptcy.
Related: Sam Bankman-Fried ordered ‘special privileges’ for Alameda account on FTX — Gary Wang
According to the letter submitted to Judge Lewis Kaplan, the legal teams representing the U.S. government and Bankman-Fried conferred over various issues that could be elicited during cross-examination of witnesses.
Bankman-Fried’s legal team plans to present evidence regarding the current value of the former FTX CEO’s $500 million investment in Anthropic in 2022.
The prosecutors believe that this evidence is intended to be used to support the argument that FTX customers and other victims would be fully compensated for their losses, which the court has previously indicated as an “impermissible purpose:”
The government maintains that the indictment against Bankman-Fried is centered on allegations of wire fraud using FTX customer deposits
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